Celebrating LGBT people of achievement

Natural?

Homosexuality is found in over 450 species; homophobia is found in only one. Which one seems unnatural now?

Spend long enough on social media, internet forums, or real-world Pride marches and you’re likely to come across the above meme in some form or another. Faced with opponents who denounce homosexuality as unnatural, it provides a pithy rejoinder to end an argument. It goes something like this: You think being gay is wrong because it’s against nature? Well, guess what? Even the birds and the bees do it.

This argument and its basis – the naturalness of homosexuality – have become the key motif of the gay-rights movement. Indeed, such is its prevalence that it now often dominates political discussion and popular culture. From the well-worn example of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’, to the plaintive ‘I can’t change’ from the chorus of Macklemore’s pro-gay marriage song, ‘Same Love’, to a recent Australian TV advert in which a mother-to-be is informed at her ultrasound that she’s ‘having a lesbian’, the message is clear – you can’t help being gay.

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yes, homosexuality exist in the animal kingdom. Animals are very accepting to those who prefer the same sex. It is civilization that we should question and let us not use “nature” to justify prejudice.

Arguing for or against the morality of homosexual behavior using “nature” is unhelpful no matter which side you are on. Even if there is proven biological evidence for homosexual desire, it does not then mean that homosexual behavior is therefore morally good or neutral. It could still be wrong to give in to such desires, just as it is wrong to give in to many other desires that we naturally have.

And on the flipside, comparing ourselves to nature is not real helpful to try to prove that homosexual behavior is good. There is also a lot of infanticide, cannibalism, etc, in much of nature but we aren’t trying to emulate that either.

Of course, trying to understand biological causes of homosexuality is a really interesting and worthwhile undertaking. But the ethics question is completely separate. Much of what is “natural” for humans are things that are considered immoral, and some of these things are against the law.